Sarubobo Coin
Electronic regional currency of Japan's Hida region (Takayama, Hida and Shirakawa), issued since December 2017 by the Hida Shinkin Credit Union, with one coin fixed at one yen. Around 2,000 local merchants accept QR-code payments, and coins can be used for municipal fees and even local tax payments, pursuing the credit union's stated goal of 'local production and local consumption of money.' It is one of Japan's longest-running and most-cited bank-issued digital community currencies.
Japan's flagship credit-union-issued digital regional currency: 8+ years live, ~2,000 merchants, tax-payment integration, and an explicit 'local production and consumption of money' mission. A disciplined full-reserve local currency with real traction — but custodial, yen-pegged, and institutionally centralized, which caps its monetary sovereignty.
M69 Score
Scored against the Money2069 Manifesto — see methodology. Higher = more aligned.
Detailed Rating Breakdown
Issuance Model3x3.0
Prepaid full-reserve issuance — coins are created only when users charge yen and destroyed on merchant redemption, so supply is elastic both ways (IM-02:5, IM-05:4); but the credit union is the sole issuer (IM-01:1) and issuance tracks charging demand, not a real-economy rule (IM-03:2).
Spending Power Stability2x3.0
1 coin = 1 yen held without deviation for 8+ years on a full-reserve model (SPS-04:5); the benchmark is a single low-inflation fiat (SPS-02:3) with no independent purchasing-power target.
Fiat Independence & Interoperability2x1.0
Yen-denominated, yen-backed, and operated by a regulated financial institution on bank rails (FI-01:1, FI-02:1, FI-03:1); the region-locked design serves local circulation, not fiat independence.
Traction2x3.0
Roughly 30,000 users and ~2,000 accepting merchants across three municipalities (TR-03:3, TR-04:4) after 8.5 years of continuous operation (TR-02:4); accepted for municipal fees and taxes, with campaigns running into July 2026 (TR-01:5), though prices remain yen-denominated (TR-05:2) and bonus campaigns drive part of adoption (TR-09:3).
Sovereignty1.0
Custodial app wallet controlled by the issuing credit union; accounts and payments can be blocked and the system halted by one entity (SO-01:1, SO-04:1).
Governance2.0
Run inside a member-owned cooperative credit union under Japanese financial regulation — formal but institution-internal; currency rules are changeable by the issuer without member vote (GO-01:3, GO-08:2).
Resilience3.0
Survived the COVID tourism collapse in a tourism-heavy region and kept growing (RE-01:4), with a self-sustaining institutional backer (RE-07:4); single-vendor platform dependency (MoneyEasy) is the main structural weakness (RE-02:2).
Inclusivity4.0
Free to use with near-zero fees (IN-02:5) and open to residents and visitors alike (IN-01:4); requires a smartphone and app account (IN-06:3), and merchant-fee revenue partly flows back into local community initiatives (IN-04:3).